epic new york trip: day one.
Oh, this entry. Yes it's time. Only I will have to split my trip up into many entries, for fear of killing your internets with photos and awesome. So here we have the entry of THE FIRST DAY.
So, I got up at like 3 AM and headed to the airport. My phone doesn't turn on until seven because of the crazy mother, so I stole Miss Betty's iPhone and began tweeting. I'm sure you all LOVED waking up to that spam. Haha. At the Tyler airport we ran into this girl who I take voice lessons with, J.J. van Deventer. The girl is like 10, but her voice kick's my voice's ass. Majorly. So I was too embarrassed to approach her. (What is my life, that I am scared of a ten year old?) She was also on our plane. On the plane our flight attendant looked very much like Andrea Martin (whomottledpigeon says looks like an older Tina Fey) so I obviously had to talk to her. Long story short, she helped me fix my make-up, recommended I read something by Anais Nin, and told me to beware of men. Weird. So then we arrived in New York, and I was all flipping out and such as I do whilst in New York. Here, have a photo from the plane.
Lovely, amirite?
Once we got to the airport, Miss Betty had hired this GoLink shared ride van or something else that sounds equally shady. We waited for the van and I stalked watched this woman wearing a bowler hat. I was very, very anti-van, until we got on board and I was seated next to this flamboyant gay man who was, say, like 80. We talked about theatre and how he saw Ethel Merman in Gypsy and how he wrote plays and met a ton of people I worship. He said Lauren Bacall was really nice and down to earth, and he had met 3/4 Golden Girls (all but Betty White). I am sure we annoyed everyone else in the van, including the newly wed couple behind us, the driver, and the man speaking above us in some strange language the whole ride. I could barely wait to get out of the van and tell Miss Betty "I told you so."
The Paramount Hotel is very chic and such, and also full of foreigners. I was not even prepared for all the European hotness my hotel had to offer. Like, as we waited to check in this very hot silver fox Frenchman kept talking to this younger chick that was presumably his wife or daughter, I couldn't tell (either way, she was dressed like an uberslut). Observe the hotel lobby, please.
Our room was tiny, but hey, what was to be expected in New York? It was red and white and had a fun chair in it.
I wanted to put it in my bag and take it home with me.
Yeah.
So anyway, we got settled and got ready for our very first show of the trip!!! Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre Upstairs, The Marvelous Wonderettes. We actually left really early, and Miss Betty's feet hurt, so she hired one of those people who pedal you around in bikes to take us to the place, as we ate our hot dogs we bought from a street vendor. I have never felt more like a tourist in my life. (And I rather hate feeling like a tourist?) I kept texting Sarah to complain, and be excited about New York in general. We had tons of time to waste, so we went and ate veggie burgers at some place called Better Burgers, and I got a Pinkberry! Pomegrante. :) FINALLY IT WAS TIME FOR THE SHOW.
Observe the cuteness that is The Marvelous Wonderettes stage, pls.
And I didn't get this photo the night we saw the show, but it made me giggle.
It was the cutest thing I have ever witnessed in my life, basically. And the chemistry between B.J (Betty Jean) and Cindy Lou was undeniable. They were cute. All the songs were super fun. I didn't ever want it to end!
We didn't stagedoor Wonderettes because I had an ingenious master plan to hunt down original August: Osage County cast member Rondi Reed, who is currently starring as Madame Morrible in Wicked at the Gershwin. So we hauled butt back to the hotel, where I changed into my August t-shirt and we headed down there. Rondi came out of the stagedoor, dropped her voice and said "Madahhhme Morreebulll", and my stomach hit the floor and I began giggling uncontrollably. She began walking to the other end of the line until I firmly shouted "Excuse me, Ms. Reed?" over the hustle and bustle of the Wicked fangirls. She did a 180 spin and noticed my shirt and kind of did an "Ah!" at it. So we had a nice little chat, much to the impatient fangirls' dismay. I told her about how I loved the play, had read it seven times, and she asked if I practiced any of the scenes so I told her about using the Violet monologue for my final exam/audition thingy. Then in my stupid fangirly state I revealed that I hadn't seen her performed, but had an audio recording of it. I think it was something like me leaning in to whisper "Actually, I haven't seen you perform. Back when I thought I had no chance in hell of getting to see the show, I had already read and loved it, and this girl I know who lives far away records shows when she sees them because she can't see them again and again like most people. And she saw how attached I got to the show and she said 'Lani, I do NOT share these with people ever, because I think it is wrong, but you can have this bootleg since you won't be able to see the show.' But then I got to New York and saw the show anyway. And you were AMAZING in the audio!" She laughed and told me it was alright, she understood. I mentioned how hardcore I fangirled the show, and told her how I had mottledpigeon send me the Melbourne Theatre Company playbill of August, and we talked about how the whole OBC is going to Sydney to perform. And then she signed my copy of August: Osage County and I was still all fangirly and squealy when we took photos.
YES THIS MOMENT HAPPENED AHHH OMG.
Talking about something I found funny, I forget what, and Rondi flipping the play open to sign.
I was attempting to be funny here, I think. She laughed. I once again don't remember what was said.
Where she signed, and caption true y/y?
Then we walked back to the hotel, I called some people, flipped out some more over Rondi and went to sleep. I had to... After all, I was meeting
diana_hawthorne in the morning!!!
To be continued....
So, I got up at like 3 AM and headed to the airport. My phone doesn't turn on until seven because of the crazy mother, so I stole Miss Betty's iPhone and began tweeting. I'm sure you all LOVED waking up to that spam. Haha. At the Tyler airport we ran into this girl who I take voice lessons with, J.J. van Deventer. The girl is like 10, but her voice kick's my voice's ass. Majorly. So I was too embarrassed to approach her. (What is my life, that I am scared of a ten year old?) She was also on our plane. On the plane our flight attendant looked very much like Andrea Martin (whomottledpigeon says looks like an older Tina Fey) so I obviously had to talk to her. Long story short, she helped me fix my make-up, recommended I read something by Anais Nin, and told me to beware of men. Weird. So then we arrived in New York, and I was all flipping out and such as I do whilst in New York. Here, have a photo from the plane.
Lovely, amirite?
Once we got to the airport, Miss Betty had hired this GoLink shared ride van or something else that sounds equally shady. We waited for the van and I stalked watched this woman wearing a bowler hat. I was very, very anti-van, until we got on board and I was seated next to this flamboyant gay man who was, say, like 80. We talked about theatre and how he saw Ethel Merman in Gypsy and how he wrote plays and met a ton of people I worship. He said Lauren Bacall was really nice and down to earth, and he had met 3/4 Golden Girls (all but Betty White). I am sure we annoyed everyone else in the van, including the newly wed couple behind us, the driver, and the man speaking above us in some strange language the whole ride. I could barely wait to get out of the van and tell Miss Betty "I told you so."
The Paramount Hotel is very chic and such, and also full of foreigners. I was not even prepared for all the European hotness my hotel had to offer. Like, as we waited to check in this very hot silver fox Frenchman kept talking to this younger chick that was presumably his wife or daughter, I couldn't tell (either way, she was dressed like an uberslut). Observe the hotel lobby, please.
Our room was tiny, but hey, what was to be expected in New York? It was red and white and had a fun chair in it.
I wanted to put it in my bag and take it home with me.
Yeah.
So anyway, we got settled and got ready for our very first show of the trip!!! Off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre Upstairs, The Marvelous Wonderettes. We actually left really early, and Miss Betty's feet hurt, so she hired one of those people who pedal you around in bikes to take us to the place, as we ate our hot dogs we bought from a street vendor. I have never felt more like a tourist in my life. (And I rather hate feeling like a tourist?) I kept texting Sarah to complain, and be excited about New York in general. We had tons of time to waste, so we went and ate veggie burgers at some place called Better Burgers, and I got a Pinkberry! Pomegrante. :) FINALLY IT WAS TIME FOR THE SHOW.
Observe the cuteness that is The Marvelous Wonderettes stage, pls.
And I didn't get this photo the night we saw the show, but it made me giggle.
It was the cutest thing I have ever witnessed in my life, basically. And the chemistry between B.J (Betty Jean) and Cindy Lou was undeniable. They were cute. All the songs were super fun. I didn't ever want it to end!
We didn't stagedoor Wonderettes because I had an ingenious master plan to hunt down original August: Osage County cast member Rondi Reed, who is currently starring as Madame Morrible in Wicked at the Gershwin. So we hauled butt back to the hotel, where I changed into my August t-shirt and we headed down there. Rondi came out of the stagedoor, dropped her voice and said "Madahhhme Morreebulll", and my stomach hit the floor and I began giggling uncontrollably. She began walking to the other end of the line until I firmly shouted "Excuse me, Ms. Reed?" over the hustle and bustle of the Wicked fangirls. She did a 180 spin and noticed my shirt and kind of did an "Ah!" at it. So we had a nice little chat, much to the impatient fangirls' dismay. I told her about how I loved the play, had read it seven times, and she asked if I practiced any of the scenes so I told her about using the Violet monologue for my final exam/audition thingy. Then in my stupid fangirly state I revealed that I hadn't seen her performed, but had an audio recording of it. I think it was something like me leaning in to whisper "Actually, I haven't seen you perform. Back when I thought I had no chance in hell of getting to see the show, I had already read and loved it, and this girl I know who lives far away records shows when she sees them because she can't see them again and again like most people. And she saw how attached I got to the show and she said 'Lani, I do NOT share these with people ever, because I think it is wrong, but you can have this bootleg since you won't be able to see the show.' But then I got to New York and saw the show anyway. And you were AMAZING in the audio!" She laughed and told me it was alright, she understood. I mentioned how hardcore I fangirled the show, and told her how I had mottledpigeon send me the Melbourne Theatre Company playbill of August, and we talked about how the whole OBC is going to Sydney to perform. And then she signed my copy of August: Osage County and I was still all fangirly and squealy when we took photos.
YES THIS MOMENT HAPPENED AHHH OMG.
Talking about something I found funny, I forget what, and Rondi flipping the play open to sign.
I was attempting to be funny here, I think. She laughed. I once again don't remember what was said.
Where she signed, and caption true y/y?
Then we walked back to the hotel, I called some people, flipped out some more over Rondi and went to sleep. I had to... After all, I was meeting
diana_hawthorne in the morning!!!
To be continued....